Trauma and transcryptum: towards a feminist methodology for the analysis of narratives of trauma

Abstract

The objective of this article is twofold: to deepen into the psychoanalytical concepts of trauma and transcryptum (a term coined by Bracha Ettinger), in order to trace a methodology for the analysis of literary transcrypta. The article is structured in two parts. In the first one, there is a revision of Freudian and Lacanian texts, offering a definition of trauma and related concepts such as latency, return of the repressed, repetition compulsion and encounter. In the second part there is an analysis of how Freudian and Lacanian premises are reframed in Ettinger’s theory, proposing that, to a certain extent, the term trauma is equal to what she calls “memory of oblivion”, and that such memory is crucial for our understanding of the transcryptum. The conclusion describes how we can use the theory of transcryptum for the analysis of literary texts.